Passengers walk free of attempted murder charge for taxi driver

Mar 01, 2021 News

Kaieteur News- A construction worker and poultry rearer on Thursday walked free of attempting to kill a taxi-driver.
The matter involving Ernest James, 25, of Lot 179 Old Road Eccles, East Bank Demerara, and Linden Flavius, 31, was being heard in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
On their first court appearance they were not required to plead to the indictable charge which read that on July 11, 2019, at John Fernandes Squatting Area, Georgetown, with intent to commit murder, they unlawfully and maliciously wounded Derrick Nelson.
On Thursday last, the matter was dismissed after Nelson failed to appear in court to testify on multiple occasions.
It was alleged that on the day in question, Nelson who is a taxi driver, was hired by the accused to take them to West Ruimveldt Back Road.
After Nelson picked up the men and was on his way to the instructed destination, Flavius pulled out a gun from his pants and held the taxi driver at gunpoint while James allegedly dealt the victim several stabs about his body with an ice-pick. It was reported that the men then relieved Nelson of his cash and jewellery before escaping through some nearby bushes.
The vehicle then crashed into a pile of wood and the victim was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he was hospitalized for several weeks. The matter was later reported and an investigation was launched leading to the arrest of the two accused.